Smaller e-comm players like Craftsvilla, Chumbak up their game as big sale begins

While online marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon may have an edge over other players, smaller companies choose to play to their strengths by focusing on authentic products in their respective categories to loyal customers.Anu Thomas | ET Online | October 03, 2016, 10:43 IST

As India's e-commerce race heats up with major players kicking off their annual sales this week, smaller niche companies are also gearing up to lure loyal customers with a preview of offers.

While ethnic wear e-tailer Craftsvilla is launching two sales events around Diwali and Navratri, lifestyle and home decor company Chumbak has opened a pre-order page for a select number of people on its platform.

"Festive season is the most important period of the year for us," says co-founder Craftsvilla, Manoj Gupta. "There is incremental shopping around this time and it helps us acquire more new customers as well as drive more repeat purchases from existing users," he says. The company has introduced specially curated collections this year, which will go live during its two sales events - the Craftsvilla Grand Festive Sale from October 1 to 5 and the Craftsvilla Grand Diwali Sale from October 12 to 16.

The company, which specializes in traditional wear and accessories from across the country, claims to have seen 100% month-on-month growth from last year's festive sales alone. Driven by growing customer responses to online seasonal sales, Chumbak has also launched a festive-specific range this year.

"We are launching a special range for Diwali in the home and accessories category this year called the Gold Collection," says co-founder of Chumbak, Shubhra Chadda. "We also ran an online contest on Instagram and other social media channels anchored around the festival to further market this initiative," she added.

Diwali dhamaka

While online marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon may have an edge over other players with a wide range of products on offer across categories, smaller companies choose to play to their strengths by providing authentic products in their respective categories to their loyalty customers.

"Ethnic wear is our specialty and we offer consumers with genuine products from across India - be it is traditional silk sarees or Amritsari mitha. We try and create a one-stop-shop for all festive-related shopping," says Gupta. Concurs Chadda," We went live with our pre-order page a few days ago but only for our loyalty customers. We understand their requirements and tune our product offerings according to their expectations," she added.

More on offer

However, despite the overwhelming response Craftsvilla has been receiving on its portal, connecting customers to sellers across the country continues to be a challenge. "Getting sellers on to the platform can provide a unique selection to users at the best possible prices is easier said than done, but we continue to improve upon the same this year too," says Gupta. "The fact that customers can find a variety of products sourced right from its origin on our site makes us unique and helps stand apart from the competition," he added.